Probably the boldest hotel to be built in our lifetime. This is a palace created by a king – ask how much it cost to develop and people will laugh in your face. It took 1,200 craftsmen three and a half years to convert the site of a municipal swimming –pool into a Taj Mahal of Moroccan super-spectacle. A courtyard, open to the sky, is kept at a constant 23 degrees. The arabesque symmetry of fountains and courtyards is mixed up with the sybaritism of a 1919 Armagnac in the bar. There are cedar ceilings so intricate they could have been carved with a toothpick; there are walls of mother-of-pearl and pink gold leaf (common gold leaf is kept for the canapés). Staff tend to the 53 individual riads in the reproduction medina through a series of underground tunnels. From the four-ton bronze gate- the original was rejected as too small – to the Lalique tables, everything is made by masters. The only man who might know the bottom line on this gargantuan apparition is Morocco’s 47-year-old King Mohammed VI, who’s personal project this is. Rumour has it that its life as a hotel will be short-lived and that the king will soon house visiting dignitaries here instead. So go to be entertained, because although food-wise it’s still finding its feet, architecturally it gets seven stars.